SideKicks

Issue 16-17: Zero Force

No Force but Yourselves

28

FEB/11

On the heels of their last exploits, the Zeros find that Dr. Alexander Proditor held a press conference announcing a new, revamped ProtoForce, obstinately for the purposes of making sure corporations follow international law. They are:

Things cut to Pastor Ted Haas holding an opposing press conference. In the middle of the press conference, an aid comes down and says there is a problem with the Mayor, and thus triggers the set of events the Zeros must contend with. The Zeros address the following problems, and discover:

The Mayor has a collar clamped on her neck (ala Harley Quinn) and a note pinned to her reading (DO NOTTOUCH).
Revenge: Joker has put a kill device on the Mayor’s neck with energy field sensors. If any meta-human power or energy signature is triggered in proximity will explode. In addition, large needles are plunged in Mayor West’s neck and attached to the triggering mechanism of the explosive collar were tiny minute wires that would activate the collar at the slightest touch.

Victoria Langley (In Arkham, actively and willingly in cahoots, but driven mad by an unsolvable puzzle)

The Bright Knights: New super gangsters in townAlbert Thompson and Captain Kinetic, corrupted by one of Conundrum’s puzzles, were worried about the future of their wards. Working with Conundrum to ‘save’ the Zeros, they setup this new mob gang. Captain Kinetic disappears amidst the chaos, while Albert Thompson forces an unsolvable puzzle onto Brain Child who, instead of falling under the sway of the negative, actually solves the unsolvable puzzle. This forces Albert to fall under her control and allows her to ask him who the negative was. His response was one word. ‘Conundrum’, whereupon his head explodes and his spirit to imbue Thomas Albertson’s weapon with strange reality bending properties.

Unknown Vigilante (dubbed ‘The Teabagger’ for the marks he left on his victim’s faces as done by a ‘a hot sack’):
Turns out to be Two Face. Working secretly on his own, without Harvey’s knowledge on the promise that he can be put back ‘in charge.’

Eventually, the Zeros uncover the above and come to conclude that:

Zero Force is alternate reality version of themselves, traveling through the multiverse to keep reality from tearing itself apart at the hands of:

The Negative: Conundrum. Somehow, Conundrum’s defeat at Vanishing Point turned him into an entity that’s very existence threatens reality itself.

The Positive: Proditor, Fat Girlfriend, or Reporter Joe Webb. One of these people may inadvertently working to keep the multiverse together.

The Arc concludes as the Zeros conspire to put Conundrum, his minions, and the potential positives all in one place. Zero Force desperately works to keep reality from crumbling, while The Zeros confront Conundrum. A huge brawl erupts, but before the situation totally falls apart, Brain Child manages to scrawl out the solution to the unsolvable puzzle that had been burned into her memory. Teen Lantern glimpses it, manages to withstand it’s mindwarping properties, and beams a construct of into the air. This causes mass panic and forces Conundrum to retreat, leaving behind his captives as well as more questions than answers.